The Navy SEAL Nutrition Guide Peto WM Be ae pee Ph.D. Pierre A. Pelletier, ENS, MC, USNRThe Navy SEAL Nutrition Guide Patricia A. Deuster, Ph.D. Anita Singh, Ph.D. Pierre A. Pelletier, ENS, MC, USNR Department of Military and Emergency Medicine Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine December 1994Preface The demands imposed by seat training are profound, and success requires the mustering of all your strength - physical and mental. One factor that may bring you closer to success is nutritional interventions. It is well known that appropriate nutritional habits and interventions can enhance your ability to perform, and we want you to be familiar with those successful habits. This manual is for you to read, participate in, and use as a resource when you have questions about nutrition and no one is available to get answers from. The first five chapters are very basic - they provide background information about nutrition concepts in general, and little to nothing about performance. However, they are very important for fully understanding the information in subsequent chapters. In the remaining chapters, we have tried to be as specific as possible in terms of what we think you should and shouldn't do, and given you reasons for our recommendations. For example, in Chapter 8: Restaurants, Fast Foods, and Eating Out, we have given you sam- ple menus at Fast Foods places so you can select a high carbohydrate diet. In the chapter on Mission Recovery, we target three areas you need to focus on and provide ways to ensure a rapid recovery. In Chapter 15, Ergogenic Agents, we discourage the use of some products because not only is there insufficient information, but there may be potential Tisks and adverse effects associated with using them. Again, our objective is to make you more informed s0 you can make educated choices about foods and supplements. Many commercial products sold in stores and through magazines make claims 50 you will pur- chase them. With some products you are wasting your money, and with others, possibly hurting yourself. Other products may actually give you the “edge” and improve your performance, but it takes information to make ihe appropriate decision. This manual should help you do that. ‘You men are a select group - we know that from our years of working with SEALs and SEAL trainees. For that reason you must be treated as such. This manual has been Prepared with that in mind: we want to help you perform to the best of your abilities under the rigorous conditions you confront in training and during missions. We certainly don't have all the answers to nutritional enhancement of performance, because the The Navy SEAL Nutrition Guide 7